Making Schools Work

Amidst a gloomy climate of failing schools and the stringent No Child Left Behind legislation, some communities have created a small revolution, achieving gains with children others had given up on-with implications for schools nationwide. In this penetrating documentary, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith travels from inner city to rural town to observe how some districts and reform models are making a difference: the Success for All reading program; the Comer Process; KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program; and High Schools That Work, a program that links academics to work-oriented learning. The video also spotlights important district-wide reforms in New York City, San Diego, and Charlotte, North Carolina. The lesson? Learn from schools that work, spread their methods widely, and keep updating them for continuous improvement in student achievement. Interviews with Yale's James Comer, Johns Hopkins' Robert Slavin, and reformers Gene Bottoms and Anthony Alvarado, among others, help frame this cogent report. (2 hours)

This extraordinary seven-part series-a practical roadmap for schools and school districts across the country-is essential viewing for educators, administrators, advocates, and anyone else with a heartfelt concern over the future of America's children. The first program, a detailed overview of some of the nation's most successful educational initiatives, is followed by in-depth interviews with eight visionaries from the world of educational reform. 7-part series, 45-120 minutes each.

In this interview, Anthony Alvarado, the dynamic architect of controversial principal-centered educational reforms in New York City and San Diego schools, and Eric Smith, Ed.D., who has risen to national prominence as superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Anne Arundel County school districts, join Hedrick Smith to describe their methodologies and examine the results of their policies and initiatives. (2 hours)

In segment one of this interview, Kati Haycock, founder and director of The Education Trust, and Hedrick Smith discuss a range of hot topics in contemporary education: the standards movement and educational equity, No Child Left Behind, and the critical components of effective school reform, to name only three. In segment two, Mike Casserly, Ph.D., executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, joins Mr. Smith to address topics such as the recent history of educational reform, America's drive to create great schools, district- versus school-level strategies, and lessons learned in regard to making schools more effective and boosting student achievement. (85 minutes)

High Schools That Work is the nation's first large-scale effort to unite educational stakeholders at all levels with the objective of re-engaging what some have called the forgotten majority in U.S. high schools. In this interview, founding director Gene Bottoms, Ed.D., talks with Hedrick Smith about the HSTW program in general and Corbin High School, Kentucky-an exemplary case study-in particular. If you can help youngsters to begin to connect to a goal beyond high school, and they can begin to connect the courses they're taking to that goal, you have a youth going someplace," says Dr. Bottoms. (45 minutes)"

James Comer, M.D., M.P.H., has spent decades promoting a focus on child development as a way of improving schools. In this interview, he and Hedrick Smith analyze the Comer Process, a school- and system-wide psychosocial intervention grounded in conflict mitigation, behavior modeling, power-sharing, and all-around involvement of teachers, parents, students, and other stakeholders. Our program focuses on the socially interactive aspects of development so that children learn how to manage themselves in a whole variety of situations," says Dr. Comer. (51 minutes)"

KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory public schools in under-resourced communities throughout the United States. In this interview, KIPP co-developer Michael Feinberg joins Hedrick Smith to discuss the program-a reform initiative created as a model for middle school reform, starting in fifth grade. The purpose of KIPP? To provide kids with the academic, intellectual, and character skills they need to succeed in high school, college, and the competitive world beyond," says Mr. Feinberg. (59 minutes)"

In this interview, Robert Slavin, Ph.D., talks with Hedrick Smith about Success for All, a comprehensive, research-based reading and math program for elementary and middle schools. The most important objective, says Dr. Slavin, is to get every single child to be successful, every single child to master the basic curriculum, to achieve the higher-order objectives that every parent would want for their child and that our society demands..." The genesis, evolution, implementation, and replication of Success for All are covered, as are the initiative's core elements. Criticism of SFA's controversial scripting for teachers to ensure uniformity of instruction is also addressed. (59 minutes)"